So, what are some of the ideas and ways to market your restaurant online? What social aspect of the Internet world should you make use of? Where do you begin?

1. Facebook — Facebook has been and still is one of the most popular forms of social networking that works great for advertising as well. It has more than a billion users that share information about everything that you could possibly think of. Establishments, like restaurants, can create their very own fan page where customers can everything people need to know about the restaurant can be shared and at the same time customers can “check-in,” share photos, mention. This attracts attention and could be a great mode of advertising.
2. Twitter — Twitter is a microblogging platform that users can post messages in. Garnering more than 500 million users, Twitter is also a great avenue for advertising. With your account, you are easily able to monitor your brand name, see compliments as well as complaints and address any questions or queries that customers may have. Like Facebook, you can also use this to tweet information, promos, sales and other special menus you have in store.
3. Own website — Establish your own website to promote your business. These days, it doesn’t take a lot to create a website specific to your brand/restaurant. In a day, so many users are online searching for things that interest them. As a business owner, it is important to make your presence be known online and creating a website makes it easier to be found. A website is a marketing strategy and sales tool that works all day, everyday.
4. Online Ordering — Online ordering would be a great service to offer. It’s no longer necessary to spend thousands of dollars to invest in a sophisticated online system to take orders from customers. There are available systems that allow you to customize menu settings and payment facility. Customers are attracted to establishments that allow them to order online because of its ease. They are more likely to prefer restaurants that make it easier for them to order in, allow them time to view the menu before they visit and like to browse any promotions or special offers available. Because schedules always seem too hectic these days, anything that can make life a little easier is almost always a hit.
5. Google Places and Yahoo! Local — Put your establishment on the map. People are more likely to visit your restaurant if they know where to find it. You can’t afford to stay off grid and not be found. Remember, customers often turn to the Internet to look for new and interesting places to visit and restaurants to try. Plus they love to get advice from other people who’ve been to your restaurant before.

Are you managing a restaurant? What marketing tools do you use?

The world of mobile local marketing is rapidly growing and it’s an incredible opportunity to reach out to your customers immediately and personally via computers and mobile phones.

arma communications will help you get your business on the map, drive online & offline traffic through your doors and take advantage of this new world of communication.

• Place your business at the top of local search listings
• Allow customers to find your business via mobile channels
• Optimize your online presence — with or without a website
• Harness the latest technology to grow your business
• Reach customers directly via their cell phone

arma communications is here to take care of all your marketing needs so you don’t have to worry about continuing to get new and current customers in the door to purchase your products or services. A well constructed and properly executed marketing plan can  pay for itself over and over again. And the only way for your company to grow and prosper is to continue to drive customers to your door, constantly reminding them that you are in business and want to provide them with your products or services.

Sure, you can work on your own marketing program yourself but if done incorrectly, it will only waste time and money without bringing any revenue. That’s why it’s important to hire a marketing firm that achieves results and can assist you in various ways to help your business achieve success.

Areas in which arma communications can assist your company while developing your personalized marketing plan:

• Social Media
• Web and Graphic Design
• SEO
• Keyword and Competitor Research
• Press Releases
• Tracking Results
• Blogs
• List Building & Leads

It is an amazing tool for local businesses that can help people find your business, provide incredible ways for you to interact with your frequent customers and entice new people to walk through your door.

Foursquare is currently one of the fastest growing mobile apps around, and had 3400% growth in 2010. Every type of business with a physical location can benefit from being on foursquare, from restaurants to movie theater to art galleries.

Foursquare is going to continue to grow in the future because it’s not only useful, but fun to be a part of.

arma communications can not only make sure your business is optimized on foursquare, but enable you to tap into opportunities that will inform customers about special offers and reward frequent buyers.

Google, the internet giant which is meanwhile among the largest IT companies has developed a tool for the small business owner which is pretty close to the most exciting marketing tool I have ever seen in the short history of the internet. After realizing that over 25% of google searches involved local searches, ie. pizza in rome for example, they set up what amounts to the probably the largest searchable yellow pages on steroids. Google Places allows business owners to upload pictures, videos, and a whole lot of information about their business for free and with relative ease to allow businesses to capitalize on these local searches.

Do you want to capitalize on Google Places?

Of course you do… you can’t afford not to. The good news is that if your business is listed anywhere on the internet the likelihood is high that your business is already listed in Google Places. No, that doesn’t mean you have to do any work since the information Google has collected is likely minimal. Once you have found your listing (or created it if Google doesn’t already have it in its system) you need to claim it. Google is going to get in touch with you either through the phone number listed in your listing to verify that you are actually who you claim you are. After your verification you are free to enter anything about your business that you want your customers to know.

How do you rise above the rest?

With only a little over 2% profiles verified by their owners you already have a very good chance of beating out a few of your local competitor. While this simple act might be enough when searching for Pizza in a tiny little town the odds drop when your small business is located in a metropolis like New York City where there is Pizza places on virtually every block. Just like anything else involving Google or other search engines the act of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play. The good news here is that since you are likely competing with only a limited competitors (within your local area) rather than all your competitors in the world there are good chances of taking top placement with just a little bit of elbow grease.

Does it bring visitors?

When Google Places first arrived we naturally had to give it a try. In order to get the most authentic feeling with a really limited target market we picked our local tennis club (who we do internet consulting for) as a test case. To give you an idea of what we were dealing with. This club is one of five tennis clubs in a town of 30,000. Estimates for the number of tennis players in the country is roughly 10%. After we have set up the profile for the tennis club and optimized it to beat the other clubs in the region we started receiving roughly 900 viewers of the profile each month. That amounts to roughly 1/3rd of all people in the town who (theoretically) play tennis and roughly 15 times as many as the club’s regular website received each month through Google searches.

So, what’s the verdict?

After having worked with Google Places for quite some time now I still have to say that I am absolutely amazed at its power of driving customers to local businesses. Is it the holy grail of local marketing – well, it just might be – but Google Places alone won’t work as a small business marketing technique. However, used in combination with other local marketing tactics such as guerrilla marketing and perhaps a few of the other local techniques such as FourSquare and Facebook Places it can be extremely powerful.

In short, your business NEEDS to have a Google Places profile in order to succeed in the future. With the increased use of local searches and even searches while people are already out and about searching for you on their smart phones in just a little while not having a Google Places listing will be just as reckless as not having a phone number.